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Frost lived in the house from the fall of 1900 until it was sold in November 1911.[4]:73 The majority of the poems collected in his first two books, A Boy's Will and North of Boston, were written here.[4] Many of the poems in his 1916 collection Mountain Interval were also written at the Derry farm.[5] Frost once said, "There was something about the experience at Derry which stayed in my mind, and was tapped for poetry in the years that came after."[6] During this period Frost also published a dozen articles for two agricultural trade journals: The Eastern Poultryman and The Farm-Poultry.[7]

Elliott, first son of Frost and his wife Elinor, died on the farm in 1900 at age four, likely due to influenza.[8]:15 The other children were educated at home by their parents. Lesley Frost later recalled she was "taught the alphabet on a typewriter... My mother taught the organized subjects, reading (the phonetic method), writing (then known as penmanship), geography, spelling. My father took on botany and astronomy."[8]:27

A hired man named Carl Burrell (and, occasionally, Burrell's father) assisted with farming duties like building hen coops, tending livestock, and picking apples and pears.[4]:74 Locals thought Frost was lazy as a farmer.[8]:15 He later recalled that they were correct: "I always liked to sit up all hours of the night planning some inarticulate crime, going out to work when the spirit moved me, something they shook their heads ominously at, with proper prejudice. They would talk among themselves about my lack of energy. I was a failure in their eyes from the start."[4]:74

In the 1940s, after Frost had left the farm, the property took on use as a junk yard. The field behind the home was littered with hundreds of junk cars, and the home itself fell into disrepair. The property was obtained by the state of New Hampshire in 1964. By 1975, restorations were complete and the farm was opened for public visitation.[9]

Frost's Poem "Mending Wall" was written about the times he spent with his neighbor, Napoleon Guay, repairing the stone wall that divided their properties. This was a yearly ritual known as "spring mending time". He wrote the poem while living in England and feeling homesick for his New England farm.[12]

"Hyla Brook" was written while he was still living on the farm in 1906. It is about a small brook, just south of the property.[13]